You Dancing? Crypt Of The NecroDancer Pre-Order Trailer

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You might think that Crypt Of The NecroDancer is being cute by combining a dance floor with a dungeon. That it’s one of those mash-ups that people seem to like nowadays. That they’re taking one thing and another thing and making a rhythm-action roguelike with it. You’re so wrong it hurts. Turning a dance floor into a dungeon, making the player move through the throng to the beat of the music as they fight for their life, pretty much describes 99% of clubs I’ve found myself in. All that’s different are the clothes and the fact that the weapons aren’t hidden. Why yes, I did grow up in Glasgow. Why do you ask?
This looks interesting. You move your character to to the beat of your pulse, which is tied to the thump of the music. Each step you take has to be on the beat or you won’t be able to move, and you need to combo your attacks to carry the groove on. The game supports playing your own music collection, so you could already be an expert at this without ever having played it. Just select the correct song, one you know every note of, and you’re 90% of the way there. As Nathan pointed out, the best bit that I won’t be using is the DDR dancepad support.

So it’s super-cute and you have a pile of legally acquired MP3s? Early access should be coming pretty soon.

Noticed this last week when it was plugged on Reddit – very interesting idea, loads of love and it did well as Pax, but my lack of rhythm means I need a demo before I drop funds because – well – because I tend to run into brick walls in rhythm games…

Games which use your music to create content tho – there are many who claim this but I think the list of games which have actually succeeded are

*unrolls scroll*

Beat Hazard

*rolls up scroll*

Not really played anything else which used ‘your music’ to do anything really tangible (and yes, I’m including Audiosurf because I don’t really think the music bit and the game bit are related at all)

I’m iffy on how much the music really matters to the player with Beat Hazard. It determines enemy patterns and bosses, but I can’t tell how it determines them. Some music creates some really ugly patterns, but then you can trip across something seemingly innocuous that creates a tough pattern as well.

Maybe it simply has wide and generic effects because you can pick songs to play it with, and it wants to remain playable regardless of what you pick, but I sometimes feel just using a random number generator would be almost the same experience.

Of course both BH and Audiosurf have the hook of highscore tables which shows people which songs have the potential for big scores etc – which make it all the more interesting – that’s pretty much a must-have for these things.

The crypt of the necrodancer. I didn’t see that one coming. All the consumed b-culture had no hint. I’m not sure I even like rhythm games. I enjoyed Beat Hazard, Audio Surf didn’t do much for me. But, hell, if the title alone, with the shown tidbit as bonus, isn’t worth it. Even I shouldn’t be able to enjoy this, I will wholeheartedly support this way of thinking.

I want to live in a world, where there are things like ‘Crypt of the Necrodancer’!